Idaho Man Tells Gop To Pay Up Former Commissioner Says Party Owes Him $1 Million

What better way to help alleviate U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth’s money woes than let the Republicans pay for them?

That’s what former Kootenai County Commissioner Douglas Frymire was thinking when he answered a newspaper advertisement in 1995 paid for by the Republican National Committee.

The ad’s challenge: Prove President Clinton’s 1995 allegations that Republicans wanted to cut spending for Medicare.

The prize: $1 million.

The result: a pile of legal briefs, years of frustration and Republican ads that no longer feature monetary prizes.

“They invited it,” Frymire, 72, said. “They should own up to it, pay their debts and get on with life.”

GOP leaders say they didn’t intend for the ad to be taken literally. They say it was a parody aimed at exposing Democrats’ bogus claims regarding the GOP’s Medicare plan.

In fact, the Republican party sued the 80 people who tried to collect the money, said Mark Pfeifle, deputy spokesman for the National Republican Committee in Washington, D.C.

“We did not want to overload our justice system with too many lawsuits,” he said. “Suing those people who made claims consolidated it into one case.”

Some 60 people have since signed agreements saying they won’t seek the prize money. But 20 people won’t back down, including Frymire.

“They sued us basically so they wouldn’t have to pay,” said Frymire, who served on the county commission from 1973-82. “I’m no wimp. If you want a good fight or discussion, then we’ll discuss things.”

Attorneys for the GOP filed in January to have a U.S. District judge in Washington, D.C., throw out the case. That decision is expected soon.

Frymire, a former teacher and sawmill worker, has not allowed the legal nightmare to change his Republican views.

In 1972, while considering running for the Kootenai County commission, he had to look in his college political science book to see which party best suited his beliefs.

“I’m a Republican. I’m one of those people,” Frymire said. “That’s what makes me so mad. Why are they treating me this way?”

Pfeifle said it’s nothing personal. “In 1995, Republicans were battling a president and his cronies who were telling half truths and outright lies about Republican plans to save Medicare,” Pfeifle said. “To battle that, we issued an offer that was meant to be a parody.”

The advertisement in the Dec. 12, 1995, edition of USA Today quoted the National Republican Committee chairman in part: “The fact is Republicans are increasing Medicare spending by more than half. I’m Haley Barbour, and I’m so sure of that fact I’m willing to give you this check for a million dollars if you can prove me wrong.”

At the time, Chenoweth was having some financial problems with her campaign, Frymire said.

“She didn’t have all her bills paid and the Democrats were picking on her,” he said. “I thought it would be nice to have $40,000 to help her out.

“Then I saw this in the paper. It seemed the answer to my prayers,” he said.

The advertisement included a coupon for people to send in their answers.

It read: “Here’s why you have no chance for the million dollars.”

It explained that the Republican National Committee would present a cashier’s check for $1 million to the first American who could prove the following statement was false: “In November 1995, the U.S. House and Senate passed a balanced budget bill. It increased total federal spending on Medicare by more than 50 percent from 1995 to 2002, pursuant to Congressional Budget Office standards.”

Frymire, who worked on a decade’s worth of Kootenai County budgets, said the Republicans gave an honest answer.

“But their time element was wrong. You can’t plan that far out and guarantee it for seven years,” he said. “It just doesn’t work out.”

The federal judge now must decide if Frymire’s answer is correct, or if the advertisement was a parody, as the Republicans argue.

“If we had a crystal ball and would have predicted this issue would still be alive today, who knows if we would have placed that ad,” Pfeifle said.

Republicans will continue to battle what they feel is rhetoric from Democrats, he said.

“But we haven’t made any type of (money) offer since then,” Pfeifle said.

Frymire hopes the judge chooses to let a jury decide the case.

“It doesn’t matter if they are Republicans or Democrats,” he said. “They can’t play these tricks on people.”